It might be smoother to build a fieldhouse from scratch than for Vikings athlete Sean Rice to put a hard hat on his head.
A groundbreaking was held at the school on Sept. 14 to get started on a 34,000-square-foot fieldhouse.
Officials are crossing their fingers for a ribbon-cutting ceremony next August.
Meanwhile, officials, dignitaries and a pair of student- athletes — Rice and volleyball player/student council president Izzy Ducar — took a photo as they all wore hard hats and planted shovels into the earth at the Burbank school.
Rice struggled putting on his hat during the photo shoot.
During a second photo shoot 10 minutes later, Rice tried adjusting the band inside the hard hat, but that didn’t work, either.
“It was a little bit tight,” he said with a smile. “I don’t wear caps and I haven’t worn hats for years since I grew my hair out.”
The helmet was not a good fit for Rice, but he thinks the fieldhouse will be a nice fit for the school.
When the building opens, however, Rice plans on being in Champaign. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound defensive standout verbally committed to Illinois to play football.
He said it’s something that will be great for the athletic department in bringing future athletes to the school.
“It’s going to be huge for recruiting,” he said. “I think that having something like this on campus is going to be an amazing benefit.”
Rice lives in Aurora and has had his share of long nights — especially during the basketball season.
“There were days when we would start practice at 7 p.m. on a school night and I’m not getting home until 10:30,” he said. “There is only one gym for all the different programs.”
Ducar is also happy that underclass and future Vikings will get to use the facility.
“It’s just a great extension of the facilities that we have,” she said. “It helps our younger programs. The JV team practices later than us. It gives them a chance to practice at the same time.
“It’s another shared space for us to have. Adding this give more space for our coaches and athletics in general.”
Ducar, a Mount Greenwood resident, is giving up sports for college . She will study accounting and hopes to someday be involved in financial planning.
She said she had a lot of high school choices and “felt a gravitational pull toward St. Laurence.”
Rice has a good feeling about the future of St. Laurence athletics because of the fieldhouse.
“The goal for someone who comes here for athletics is to be able to get the opportunity to play at the next level,” he said. “The more the school helps to fund our different athletic programs, the more it will produce results and get us all to the next level.”